Assignment
by Coofis
Summary: The words were first written to achieve a good grade. But by the end of her presentation, they meant so much more. A college-aged Bra describes her father.


Assignment

**A/N – I was inspired in the middle of the night to write this, so enjoy!**

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_For many years, I was viewed by peers and superiors alike to be the mirror image of my mother. I even considered myself to be a carbon copy, if the blue locks and the deep sapphire eyes were anything to go by. The business associates of my mother, upon witnessing my younger, chubby form seeming to radiate the benevolence of youth, would smile knowingly. I grew up surrounded by the foreshadowing remarks of my elders. _

"_She's going to be a tycoon before you know it, Ms. Briefs."_

"_Would you look at that? Let's hope she's inherited your smarts alongside your looks."_

"_Look out world, the next Bulma Briefs is rising in the ranks!"_

"_If she's anything like her identical mother, I'd better watch out, hmm?"_

_The world of business revered and feared my mother, and it still does despite her surmounting age. My mother has implanted an image of confidence, brilliance, and an infectious personality upon every household, applying the logo of her company onto almost every appliance worldwide. She has truly monopolized her industry. My appearance may bear an uncanny resemblance to hers, but I highly doubt that there will ever be a business shark with a bigger effect on humanity than her—not even me. My mother is truly unique—a rare gem. No one could ever hope to replace her in the technology arena if they tried. _

_But what if I told you that behind all of her insurmountable success is a man that I believe is a much greater example of someone who has surpassed seemingly impossible odds and gained a victory mightier than anyone on this Earth has or will gain? _

_This man prefers to stay submerged in the shadows, shying away from attention. He has never been an extrovert. But what if I told you that this man possesses intelligence that can rival that of my mother's? _

_This man is a person who has been the victim of a plethora of bogus rumors, especially once the tabloids caught wind of a new relationship brewing in the Briefs household all those years ago. It has been more than two decades now, bordering on three, since the reporters uncovered the news of my mother's mysterious romance with an equally (if not more) mysterious new man._

_The reporters could never figure him out, for he, being the private man that he is, shooed them away. It still amuses me that to this day he manages to ward off the unfortunate journalists who choose to take a step onto his lawn. It is rare now when one dares to trespass upon Capsule Corporation territory. _

_That man is my father._

_He takes quite a while to warm up to, and in fact a selection of my mother's closest gaggle of special friends has yet to completely accept him as safe. Some still hold an inkling of a grudge against him for a heated run-in he had with them several decades ago, but they have mostly forgiven him for his past actions. He was a different man then._

_When my mother first became aware of his existence, she considered him to be a ruthless fiend. She hated him for what he had done to her dearest friends. She was frightened of him, too, but mostly she was enraged at the sins he committed. It was only after a particularly hectic chain of events that she began to see him in a different light._

_It was after the aforementioned events that my father found himself without a home, without a family, without a single soul who could ever truly empathize with him and his identity. He had managed to live with his loneliness for quite a while, but now that a sort of peace reigned over the Earth, the reality of his situation crashed down on him. He was all alone. My mother saw this and, while everyone else was inclined to condemn him and would have been pleased to see him suffer, decided to invite him to stay at her home so that he would not have to roam the streets with nowhere to go._

_She gave him a second chance at life._

_It was during this time that she began to see an entirely new side to my father. He was not the cold and calloused man he had once been supposed to be. He had become hardened to the world because of the darkness, pain, and loss that defined his past, and he was struggling to salvage the fragments of his life while putting up a mask of stoic strength. _

_He was afraid that his weakness would be discovered and preyed upon. He had grown up in a harsh environment where one's weakness could be their downfall if they did not conceal it, and as the saying goes, old habits die hard. He was really a noble and princely sort of man inside, but the scars of his past hindered him from discovering his true potential._

_He wanted to be different. He wanted to change. He wanted to taste freedom for the first time since he was a young boy. But he was stuck in the rut of his old lifestyle, and it seemed to be progressively swallowing him whole. He did not want his emotions to shroud his judgment in obscurity, and so he avoided them like the plague. He was a great man bound by old chains._

_My mother saw this in him. She saw through his façade and realized that he was misunderstood. He was not wholly rotten. Ever since he was a child, he had been scorned. No one had taken the time to show him what love meant. Everyone around him only managed to hurt him deeply by tearing everything remotely good away from him, goading him toward the dark side. It was his pain—and ultimately his hatred of those who had caused the pain—which derailed him. _

_He made mistakes. He was not a saint by any stretch of the imagination. He succumbed to many vile temptations. But the darkness within him was not entirely his fault. _

_My mother was the one who helped to heal him. Slowly, she worked at gaining his trust, and inch by inch his true nature started to unfold. It was a long and arduous process, riddled with battles of enormous proportions, the likes of which not a soul on this Earth except my mother's special friends would ever believe; and when a son was conceived as a result, it only grew more difficult. _

_But both of them pulled through each and every trial, and both grew stronger from them. My mother achieved the confidence she needed to run her business more efficiently, while my father changed in ways that no one could have ever expected. There was one day, however, which blatantly showed how drastic his transformation really was._

_It was the day that he made final, and ample, atonement for all that he had done. It was a day that occurred several years before I was born, for by the time I came into the world my father had already become a hero. It was a day that was truly…explosive. It was a day which clearly showed how much he loved my mother and their son—my older brother, Trunks. That day it was made clear to all that he had redeemed himself._

_My father had a rival then, and he still does, but their rivalry is no longer one of animosity. But in the years before I was born, my father hated his rival with a passion, because his rival always managed to exceed my father's own abilities. _

_His rival may be physically stronger, but my father, I believe, is the better man._

_I watched the act that my father's rival committed with my own eyes, back when I was a mere toddler. He left his family. He left his friends. And he left them indefinitely. He went away to mentor a young boy. His wife's pain was written in clarity upon her features, and yet he winked out of sight without a second thought. In doing so, he lost the most important battle of all._

_It is my father who achieved the final victory._

_It is my father who still remains alongside his own family, mentoring his children in ways that his rival has refused to pursue with his own children. It is my father who offers profound advice which stems directly from his experience during his less-than-optimal childhood. (Sometimes I wonder if my father endured all of those hardships in preparation for the life he has now.) It is my father who has committed himself to being loyal until the very end. It is my father who is the only man capable of balancing my mother's mercurial temperament with his own. _

_It is my father who has become my role model—not because he is a businessman with an impressive work ethic, but because he is a true hero._

—_Bra Briefs_

Letting out a breath she had previously been unaware of holding, Bra brushed a cerulean curl from her eyes and smiled lightly. The students who now trained their gaze upon the daughter of the richest woman in the world continued to observe her, drinking in her appearance. Bra could tell that the significance of her essay had been mostly lost upon them. They could appreciate posh wording and perhaps could feel a shard of admiration for the man known as the sire of Bra, but the true meaning they would not be able to comprehend. How could they fully understand?

They were still deceived by the pompous World Martial Arts Champion, Hercule Satan, concerning the light tricks at the Cell Games. The memories of their parents had been wiped of any knowledge concerning the destruction and resurrection of Earth, and so they could not have had any of said knowledge passed down to them.

None would ever know how much of a hero her father truly was.

But perhaps that was the way he liked it. He had never been much for attention anyway.

**END. **

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_Reviews are very much appreciated! ;) _


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